Sprint Triathlon - RECAP

Well... I finished my race on June 3 2017.
Today is August 13, 2017


So, it's been a minute since I've been online. At least in blog land. I did, however update another thoughts post from before the triathlon.

To recap .. I was sick right before my race. It really messed with my mental game. I was unable to donate blood before hand too which had been a personal goal of mine. I had been 'meaning to' donate for (literally) years and never did. I finally did last december and then proceeded to get quite sick afterwards with a head cold.

I had what I think could have been a sinus infection. I had zero fluid movement from my face and it was stiff and hard. Not able to taste for almost a week. I had to hold my breath in order to eat food, because my face was so stuffed up

I looked up any and all remedies! I did sinus massages, espsom salts, essential oils, diffusers, hot compress, eating whole cloves of garlic..

I did get a bit better before the race. I also had a few warm up swims in open water and it was quite an eye opener! I'm have anxiety in open water apparently. What a time to find this out!
Swimming in the open water is very different than the comforts of a swimming pool, to say the least. When you attempt to swim with a wet suit (because it was very cold still) and you cannot breath through your nose gets really intense really quickly. Granted I don't actually breath through my nose when I'm swimming at all. It just really messed me up

I went back again the following week. Now 8 days pre triathlon. The second session went a lot better, I was def on the upswing health wise but not perfect. Excpet this time I was soooo gassed. I felt like I could just pass out. Light headed, dizzy, nauseous. It was terrible. I remember telling my friend that had she not been there I would have been on the phone with my husband crying because I was distraught over how poorly that session had gone

Well, the sprint came and went. I was able to swim. I got my best time to date in the open swim. 25 mins. Almost half of what I'd been doing in practice. I kept my head above the water for majority of the swim. I was a lot better by the time we raced, not perfect but certainly in a way better space to race. I also went off course by a fair ways (sigh) but still made a personal best for time

I met my friends boyfriend (Taylor) for the first time the night before. He's completed a half iron man. He knows his Sh!t and he looked over my bike and did some tweaks that i think really helped me out. He was also available throughout the course for support. Which was super cool

Next was the bike. I got out of the water, was a little tired. I could hear my people cheering. Disrobed the wetsuit threw my shorts, shirt, socks, shoes and a hat. Unhooked my bike and made my way to the start of the bike

Bike was 20km. It went really well, minimal hills which i appreciated. There was a car show at the same time and we were riding on the streets so that got interesting at times.
I had such a good time on the bike, I was able to push but not too hard. I felt like all the nights I spent on a spin bike, although not the same as a regular bike, really helped my mindset for the longer ride

Finally was the run. (5km) As I was transitioning from bike to run the only thing I needed to do was re rack the bike throw a hat on quick SPF application and some juice and I was off!
I finished the 5km in 29ish mins. Which is right on par to what I would do if I ran only! Now I had completed 5km within 30 mins after having swam and biked

I was in the 30-35 age group. The woman who won the entire race, was in my age group. She's pretty badass. Didn't even need a wet suit, she just swam in her Team Canada bathing suit.

She crossed the finish line, as I was starting my run. 

She beat my time by 30 mins. 

Badass.

My personal goal to finish was 2hrs. 2 1/2 maximum. I finished my first sprint triahlon in 1hr and 45mins.. Needless to say I was pretty jazzed

I had a smile on my face the entire race. The smile stayed all day. My girlfriend who also raced. Got 1st in her age group and won an etched wine glass! Appropriate at the race is called WCOC - Wine capital of Canada. 

Then came the celebrations! My hubby, sister and bff came with me. My friend had her bf and room mate and we all set up shop in our VRBO rental in Osoyoos. There was a pool and a bbq and we feasted!

But first -- wine! 5 of us went out to 5 wineries between Oliver and Osoyoos. It was fun :) There was a wine map. Similar to a lot of placed in the okanogan. There were 30 wineries to chose from in a radius near out rental. We did 5 then headed back to epic bbq. 

We did big bbq meal and then we did group breakfast the next day, and made our way home

I'm so happy that I acheived this personal mile stone. Between the trials of getting so sick beforehand and accomplishing my race in a way better time than I had expected it felt really good.

This was my goal for my bday this year. The race was June 3 and my 31st bday was June 10

My next goal you ask? 

 I'd LOVE to do another spring triathlon but I do not own my own bike. I am currently setting some monies aside so that I can be in a position to buy one hopefully sooner than later. I've recently been considering doing another half marathon in the fall. The same girlfriend that did the sprint with me asked me to join her in a Trail race for her bday

I've never done a trail race before. It's only 30$ (the sprint was 150) and its on sunday so I dont even need to book a day off of work. So much win

Current short term goal --- 10km trail race in october. 

I'm also considering the Run for Water in Abbotsford next may. Hopefully with a few girlfriends 

I mentioned in my very first post about a girl who was part of my fitness lifestyle being born. Her name is Sara and she's part of SJ2 

Long post! But that's the big update for now 

Thanks for reading